


Blonde On Black

by Rodyle



Category: Naruto, Soul Nomad
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-25 16:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20029102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodyle/pseuds/Rodyle
Summary: Tears on a riverPush on a shoveIt don't mean muchJoker on jackMatch on a fireCold on iceA dead man's touch





	1. Chapter 1

* * *

The alarm only managed to go for 3 seconds this time.

But even as he lunged for the off button, his bloodshot eyes registered a pair of shoes soles rapidly approaching, and he knew it was too late.

"TOO SLOW, ZERO POINTS!" the woman's voice roared, as as a devastating double drop kick sent the hapless young man flying out his open bedroom window.

Naruto Uzumaki, aged 16, was starting the day off just superbly.

The vicious attacker, having rebounded off her own son's face, summersaulted and gracefully landed on the floor of his room before approaching the window and assessing her handiwork. 

"Oooh!" Uzumaki Kushina cooed mockingly, "Stuck the landing did we?" 

Her son, shivering in his boxer's and sporting a red bootprint on his face, but indeed having managed to land on his feet, screeched back, "EVERY MORNING, EVERY DAMN MORNING, WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS YOU OLD WITCH?"

"How rude," she replied with a mock pout, "I'm a beautiful young lady you know? Besides, it's your fault for being slow on the uptake. If I were an enemy, I could have cut your throat!"

"Oh so you're NOT an enemy then?"

"What's that?" Kushina plastered on a bright smile and turn her head, cupping her ears, "not hungry this morning?"

The blonde was up on the second story windowsill in an instant, prostrate as he could be in the available space, "oh dearest mother, forgive this wretched creature his trespasses."

"That's what I thought I heard!" she replied, clasping her hands together with the same unbroken smile. "Now, get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs for breakfast. It's finals day and you've got to be ready."

\---

The Uzumaki pair lived in comfort, despite being a fairly young single mother and her student son. Naruto's late father, though not an old clan member, had amassed a reasonable war chest between his time as soldier and his brief stint as the fourth Hokage, the village leader. His mother was not on active duty as a jounin, the most elite ninja of their village anymore, but she had an unmatched specialty in sealing jutsu, for which she could charge exorbitantly when called upon.

Technically, as the last of the Uzu main family, the pair enjoyed a noble status just below that of feudal royalty... not that this meant much, when the old village hidden in the whirlpools burned two generations ago. But still, they could have set up a nice estate in this, the village hidden in the leaves, Konoha. Instead, they lived in a fairly modest house, a bit large for two people but not so extravagant aside from that. 

All of which was to say, they had plenty of funds to feed a pair of human garbage disposals.

"Oi, that was mine!" Naruto cried in protest, as the stolen fistful of bacon vanished entirely down his mother's throat in one go.

"Then you should have been quicker!" Kushina crowed, only to be shocked when she realized the rise: while she was focused on the bacon bait, he'd pulled the entire pot of miso soup over! Satisfied with his sleight of hand, he drank deep of the pot directly... but when it was lowered, he saw with horror his plate of sausages and fried rice had been switched with her empty one. 

Naruto's attempts to reclaim his lost treasure were stymied by his right hand being repeatedly stabbed by chopsticks as it frantically tried to save even a single sausage from the cruel Uzumaki matriarch. Meanwhile, having written off the fried rice as a lost cause, his left hand busied itself shoveling hash browns in his mouth with a fork.

This carried on, as usual, for quite awhile. But somehow, for all that the Uzumaki table was always a warzone, Naruto never left it hungry. In his more thoughtful moments he wondered if his mother didn't let him win just enough. 

Or maybe hunger just gave him the strength of a jounin, who could say? 

In either case, Naruto was gathering up the last of his gear when the doorbell rang, and his mother answered it. "Well hello you tw-" a canine Huff interupted her, "oh I'm sorry Akamaru, three of course."

As he adjusted his final peace of kit, his trusty goggles, Naruto approached the door himself. "Morning Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru," he greeted casually.

His fellow classmates, Kiba Inazuka (he of the face paint and oversized canines), and Hyuuga Hinata (she of the pupilless, milky white eyes), sat on top of Kiba's horse sized ninja dog, Akamaru. The huge dogs were a specialty of Kiba's clan, and Naruto had often wondered how the Inazuka's originally got them to grow that big. 

Well, Chakra, assumedly. Unless the ancient Inazuka's just found a species of huge dogs and bribed them. Or made a contract with some weird, canine obsessed wizard. Naruto wasn't one for scholarly speculation, or being murdered by Inazuka's keeping family secrets, so he was fine keeping the thoughts idle. What had he been thinking about originally anyway? Oh, right, Kiba and Hinata being here. That was an unexpected visit.

"Hey Naruto," Kiba said, "Mrs. U," he nodded at the older redhead, then he side eyed his female passenger. "Was on my way to the Academy, ran into Hinata here. She wanted to... make sure you weren't late." There was something odd about the Inazuka's tone with that last part Naruto couldn't place.

"Huh? Of course I'm not going to be la-" Naruto started to say, only to get a swift punch in his side that made him buckle over. 

The culprit was all smiles, "Why how thoughtful of you Hinata! My moron here DOES need a bit of help staying on track." The Hinata shy mumbled something about that being too harsh, but her protests were completely ignored by Kushina, who shoved her son out the doorway. "You kids best be off, speaking of that. Can't fail your final over being tardy, yeah? But remember Hinata, you're welcome here _any time_!" There was a glint in her eyes that was either knowing, predatory, or both. "Oh and of course that goes for you two as well," she added to Kiba and Akamaru. 

"Righto Mrs. U," Kiba replied, "want a ride Naruto?" 

The blonde shook his head, "Nah, I want to get some good exercise in. I'll race ya this time, how's that sound, eh Akamaru?" The second the hound assented, the blonde shot up towards the nearest rooftop and off to the Academy.

"Wha- oi that's cheap! Kiba roared, with his mount equally furious as it jumped after Naruto, Hinata clinging on tight. 

Kushina watched them all depart with a nod and a smile, then turned towards the direction where the Hokage monument used to be. "Hmm, looks like some rain clouds headed this way. Best bring in the laundry."


	2. Education is a Breeze

Naruto wasn't terrible at school. His theory, however was fairly terrible, often just barely scraping by, but that was simply because he found the curriculum to be agonizingly dull. 

It wasn't as if knowing every single way chakra was channeled helped you do it! Crazy math problems wouldn't help you aim throw kunai better! You just had to get the right feel for it! Besides, a lot of the students used intricate family techniques only tangentially related to what the Academy taught. It was a waste of time for him. 

These protests didn't much improve his grades, but nevertheless.

On the other hand, he was actually fairly decent at the practical side of things.

If not measuring up to certain standards.

"And that's a perfect score for Mr. Uchiha," the examiner declared, following the class Ace's demonstration of one of his family's beloved giant fireball attacks. 

_What a shock, Kid Cop does it again,_ Naruto thought somewhat irritably. Not that he disagreed with the score, but when classes are stuck together from 6 to 16, it gets very tiring to hear the same boy praised as the model student for a decade. And he didn't even have the decency to be smug about it! 

Fortunately, Sasuke Uchiha had only just recently started to awaken his family's trademark eyes and this was the finals, so unless the blond was unlucky enough to share a team with the latest scion of Konoha's clan of hereditary military police, his the hearing about the many virtues of the Sharingan would be limited. 

Sasuke took his seat again and started to talk a bit with his neighbor, insect user Shino Abruhame. Naruto sighed and turned a bored gaze outside as the next student was called up. 

Staring at The Giant's outline in the distance, he felt the old mixture of irritation and... malaise? He wasn't sure what to call it. The enormous creature hadn't moved an inch in his entire life, but village law was very clear: yes it was still alive, no you were never to go near it.

Naruto wasn't necessarily the greatest fan of the rules, but he couldn't say he was in a huge hurry to go up and start poking a mountain sized monster... lady... thing... that nearly wiped one of the five great ninja villages out in a single night. 

Even if it had killed his dad. 

So there Konoha stayed, stuck in the shadow of its near demise, constantly trying to figure out how to get rid of the thing but worried of the consequences of agitating it out of its torpor.

Naruto's own name was called, pulling him back to reality and down to the front. "Alrighty Professor Iruka, let's knock this out quick."

The educator ignored the comment and shuffled the deck of cards in this hand, placing three at random face down. "Alright, same as the others Naruto: you have to be ready to use any skill at any time, so get ready for whatever's been pulled." After the pupil nodded, Iruka flipped the first card.

"One shadow clone," the teacher said, "haven't pulled that yet." He looked at Naruto, "don't try a regular clone because you can be sure I'm touching it! That goes for anyone else who pulls it too!" 

"Yeah, yeah," the blonde replied, quickly performing the needed hand seals for a solid copy made of chakra, which materialized in front of Iruka's desk. The Chunin instructor examined it for a moment, looking for flaws, then took a good swing at it. The clone stumbled back and disappeared in a puff of smoke, but was indeed solid.

"Could stand to be a bit sturdier, but perfectly acceptable. Next," Iruka flipped the second card, "demonstrate a family technique." 

Naruto nodded and reached into a holster on his belt, flashed a seal marked card he pulled from it, and pumped the card with chakra. One puff of smoke later, and Naruto was holding a full size Naginata.

Uzumaki's hardly had a monopoly on item storage seals, but they were good at them. The weapon itself also served for the Dance of the Whirlpool, but Iruka marked the seal use as enough.

And the last card was... transformation! "Piece of cake!" One quick copying of Iruka later and Naruto was back at his desk, all but officially a Genin. 

Eventually the last student was tested, the classroom emptied, and Iruka left alone with the curriculum acquired test deck.

"...We have GOT to get the council to approve better exams."

\---

Sarutobi Hiruzen had seen wars destroy countries, legends slay one another, and the passage of many decades, more than a few of those as one of the most powerful people on the planet, personally and politically. 

Right now the Third Hokage wished at least one of those had had the good grace to kill him and spare him having this meeting. Again.

"I don't see how this is complicated. The boy needs to have it, so he can kill it." Shimura Danzo said dispassionately. 

"Kill it?" Utatane Kohane replied, aghast. "We threw everything we had at it and could barely scratch it! All that nonsense would accomplish would be agitating it into action again. The only thing he should do is see if he can't get it to march into the damn sea and never come back!"

"Damn the both of you!" The third Village Council member, Mitokado Homura roared, "damn giving a boy that thing and damn moving it at all for that matter! The seal is airtight and the only thing any of this is going to do, as I've said all along is piss that monster off or worse, break the seal! We should just-"

"Continue to cower beneath it?" Danzo growled. "As you said, the seal is strong. Breaking it isn't an issue, we can hand it to the host easily. And once the host truly IS one, it can use that demon's own power to rid us of the literal SHADOW it has placed over our village." 

"Or the boy could lose control of the power and become a greater threat than the beast!" The other man replied, "between what's in the seal and what's not, I'll take the latter any day!"

"The giant killed numerous comrades AND DESTROYED A MOUNTAIN!" their only female colleague cried. 

"At the demon's direction!"

"Our nation," Danzo hissed out, "has never gotten anywhere through inaction and cowardice."

"BUT," The Third Hokage saw his opening and took it, "nor have we gotten this far acting in haste." Receiving only silent glares in response, he continued, "Now, Danzo, Kohane, I agree with you that we cannot simply live like this forever. Something is bound to set it off eventually, and before that happens we should train Naruto to deal with it." Ignoring the snort from the outvoted Homura, Hiruzen then added, "However we can't simply give him the weapon, make him the host, and point him at the thing. As I said: he must be trained, and trained under supervision. This I propose we wait for Jiraiya to re-"

"Unacceptable." Danzo cut in.

"I concur," said Kohane, "our last report from Jiraiya had him going into the tropics south of Wave Country, we have no idea when or even if he'll return. This is an indefinite delaying tactic."

"It's not a delaying tactic," the Sarutobi patriarch replied honestly, "he's simply the most qualified. He's not as good with seals as the boy's mother, but he's stronger and more well traveled, perfect for a master and apprentice team."

"Oh I agree your student would be quite ideal Sarutobi, _if he were here_." Danzo's reply was dripping with venom. "But as it stands, he is not. The boy has finished his schooling and will officially be a soldier soon. It's time you treat him like one and not a child. You want him to train? Fine. But put him on a team I say, handpick the teammates and jounin, and give him the damn weapon so he can get used to being the host."

"I'll support that plan." Kohane said, "and I'll imagine the noble clan heads would too. Fugaku and Hiashi have both been asking us to hurry up and give them a plan." 

"The day this council bows to those two runts-" Homura started, but Hiruzen raised a hand to silence him. 

The Hokage sighed deeply, then said. "Very well, have it your way. I will give it to him tonight, and may our predecessors not curse us for it." He snapped his fingers and a member of the feared Anbu Black Ops appeared. "Summon Kushina and her son..." the third rolled his pipe between his fingers contemplatively for a moment, "yes, and Kakashi too. Impress upon him the immediacy of the matter."


	3. A History Lesson

Torchlight flickered off the wall as the small party descended deeper and deeper into the cave.

An unexpected visit from the black clad, animal masked members Anbu Black Ops was rarely good news, so Naruto couldn't exactly say he was thrilled to be accosted by two on the way home from a hearty graduation ramen with some of his friends. 

Things had not improved when he was, with no explanation beyond "the Hokage summons you," led by the two far out into the woods up to a cave sealed by a gate. 

The gate itself had multiple physical locks and the cave entrance way ringed by multiple seals protecting both the gate and the mountainface they were carved into. These were all deactivated and the gate unlocked by the time the blonde and his escorts arrived, and the many seals on the cave walls and ceiling were as well. Naruto had learned quite a bit about seals from his mother, with their clan being the experts, but he barely recognized, much less understood, even half of the nearly endless seal carvings he saw as they went deeper and deeper.

"Okay I know you don't want to give details, but can I not have the slightest idea what Gramps wants? Cause I'm gonna be honest, this doesn't paint a great picture."

The Anbu behind him said nothing, but the one leading the way down with the torch replied, "We don't know, in truth. You were not the only one summoned however, and he shall soon explain himself."

'Soon' seemed like a relative term when the stairs still showed no signs of stopping, continuing ever onward into darkness. "Who else was summoned?"

"Your mother and Hatake Kakashi were who we were directed to fetch. If there are more, I am unaware."

Naruto didn't know his father's old student terribly well, but figured the connection was obvious, even if his deduction skills weren't exactly top notch. "So... this place something to do with my Dad then?"

"As I said, we do not know. The cave is off limits to all without the Hokage's permission. Only he and your mother can undo these seals in the first place."

Supposing he'd have to be satisfied with waiting, however impatiently, Naruto allowed the rest of the trip in silence.

Eventually, light appeared at the end of the staircase, and the infinite tunnel gave way to a medium sized chamber lit by set torches. 

If Naruto had thought the secret, barred off dark forest tunnel with seals everywhere was a bad sign, that was nothing compared to this final destination: every single inch of the walls and ceiling were totally covered with still more seal carvings, and that wasn't even the worst of it. 

The main floor was dominated by one giant seal, carved out of the Earth, then filled with what appeared to be molten iron. At the four points of the seal, smaller seals had been similarly carved and filled, and great nails driven into them. These nails bound huge chains, with seal tags attached to each link, all of which were attached to the room's ominous centerpiece: a single Naginata, pitch black save for some strange crimson characters Naruto didn't recognize at all. The weapon was mounted, sticking straight up in the air, on a small shrine with its own carved seals. 

"Good evening Naruto," The Third Hokage's voice tore Naruto from his stunned reverie, causing him to focus less on the room's ominous decoration. This caused him to notice the room's other occupants. Aside from the Third, the Anbu's promise of Kushina and the ever-masked Kakashi held true, but there were indeed others lining the edge of the chamber: Clan Head and Jonin Commander Nara Shikaku, head of the intelligence division Morino Ibiki, Koharu, Homura, and Danzo from the upper council, and Clan Heads Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuuga Hiashi. 

The entire senior leadership of the village and the heads of the two strongest clans, all meeting in a creepy cave in the middle of the night, was more than enough to make even the most self-confident of individuals wary. "Evening Gr- Lord Hokage. Mind telling me what this is about? What's with the evil looking weapon and the audience?"

The old man sighed, "Yes, the weapon... tell me my boy, what do you know about The Giant?"

Naruto wasn't sure what response he was expecting, but that wasn't it. Scratching his head, he responded uncertainly, "Not much? It showed up 16 years ago, blew up that old monument, killed a load of people, and my dad died like, putting it to sleep or something?"

"That's the official story," Ibiki said, his tone professional and dispassionate, "in truth, while the beast did cause the bulk of the death and destruction, including killing Lord Gamabunta and destroying the monument, and was what most saw and fought that day, its stillness is not the work of the late Lord Namikaze."

"Just so," the Third confirmed, "what your father defeated that day was not the beast itself, but something far worse: the master that commanded it, he pointed meaningfully at the Naginata, "a terrible demon named Gig. Minato destroyed its body only at the cost of his life. Left without a form, Gig latched onto the nearest thing he could, the Uzumaki's ancestral Naginata, which your father had borrowed."

Commander Nara jumped in, "when my team and I found your father's body, the demon was spewing every curse he could thing of at it. We wrapped it up and bring it to Lord Hokage, along with the late Lord's body."

"So many parents burying children, masters burying students... the worst day in the history of the Leaf since Madara's rebellion, with more casualties than the 3rd war..." The elderly village leader's eyes looked somewhere far away for a moment, then returned to the present. "But though we could not destroy Gig completely, nor defeat his creature, your father's gambit paid off: the master was neutralized, and the servant, without further commands, slowed and, once the attacks finally ceased, fell asleep."

Naruto stared at the Naginata with a mix of anger and fear, "you said it was talking, Mr. Nara?"

"Screaming, actually. Swearing vengeance, just plain swearing, declaring inevitable victory, and gloating over the violence and destruction."

Kushina finally broke in, "which is where I came in. I was exhausted, I'd just given birth to you that same night, and on top of all the chaos, Lord Hokage and I needed to shut Gig up and hide him away, since we weren't able to destroy his vessel." Her face twisted into a rage Naruto had never seen on his mother, "I wanted nothing more than to dump the thing into the ocean and bury him at sea forever."

"Pointless emotion that was thankfully buried," spoke Danzo, immediate setting Naruto's opinion of the previously distant councilor as the worst person in town, "the creature could have broken out of the weapon on its own, eventually, and is far more useful on hand.

Kushina's head slowly turned towards Danzo, an ominous chakra leaking out, but the line of sight between the two was suddenly obscured by Hyuuga Hiashi. "Lady Kushina... I understand, but now isn't the time," the Hyuuga head said softly. 

"Yes," said the previously silent Kakashi, "there will be plenty of time to spit on the memory of those greater than we shall ever be later, Councillor Danzo. Kushina, could you continue?"

Naruto's mother was silent for a moment, then turned back to her son, "anyway, long story short, Lord Hokage, Lord Jiraiya, and me made this place. Gig is asleep and nothing is getting in unless we let it... but that doesn't solve the giant problem." She grinned, "That's where you come in!"

_Who's Lord Jiraiya?_ Naruto wanted to asked. Instead he asked, "Uh...?"

"It's a system of your mother's design," the Third said. "When you grasp the Black Naginata, Gig, reawakened, will try to possess you. But this is a trap. The seal beneath our feet will activate, and bind Gig beneath you. He will become a prisoner in your body, and you will enlist him in, eventually, the destruction of what Gig himself called 'The World Eater... should you accept the task." The last part, said as an afterthought, earned a shocked a furious reaction from some of the audience.

"You are giving him an out!? This was not the deal Sarutobi!" Danzo roared, banging his staff on the ground.

"I must agree," the Uchiha head spoke for the first time, "why call us all out if you're going to let the boy walk away from his duty?"

"Because," answered Hiruzen, in a voice that would Brook no further argument from anyone, no matter position, "I want you all to witness this decision, and understand that it is to be respected, absolutely." Locking eyes with the young Genin, he placed the choice before Naruto. "Well my boy? Will you take up this task?"

Dead silence followed for a few moments, then Naruto posed a question of his own, "Why me? I'm just fresh out of the academy? Sure I want to help the village and get back at the thing that killed my old man and all the others, but-"

"Because we're all that's left." Kushina interrupted. "The last two ofthe Uzumaki main family, the seal masters. Whether he stays here or goes with you, you'll be Gig's jailer one day. Better, I say, to take him and put that monster to work."

That made sense, at least to Naruto's mind, so, after closing his eyes, and taking a deep breath, he nodded. Seeing the old man gesture to the naginata, Naruto approached the weapon, grabbed it by the shaft and, after hearing his mother utter a chant, watched as the chains all unlocked and flew off at once.

Everything went black.


	4. Bad Boys

Naruto awoke to find himself standing in a seemingly infinite dark void. Before he could think about the implications of this, his attention was directed upward by an unfamiliar voice.

"Ahhhhh, nothing like a little decade plus nap to cool a guy off after losing a body. And hey, what have we here but a nice, shiny new one?"

Floating above the young blonde was, to his surprise, an oddly human looking individual. The man had grey hair and a simple shirt and top, plus some wristbands. What stood out however, were a pair of odd, grey and red winglike objects that wrapped around the man, connected to a centerpiece above his chest. They weren't connected to him, but simply bobbed up and down while he simply stayed still above. Naruto took this all in, breathed deep, then said, "So, just so I get it, you're Gig, right?" he asked slowly.

The man gave a feral from, "Aha! My greatness precedes me. That's me, the baddest of the bad, killer of kings, destroyer of worlds, the almighty Gig! And now I- WHOA there tiger!" Gig dodged backwards to narrowly avoid a leaping kick from Naruto. "Jeez kid, something I said?"

Naruto landed, never breaking eye contact with the demon. "You killed my dad and destroyed half the village!"

"SOUNDS like something I'd do. In fact that's something I did all the time. You're gonna have to narrow it... wait... " Gig looked his visitor up and down, then, dodging a thrown kunai said, "blonde spiky hair, ninja, same headband..." he grinned, "Oh this is TOO GOOD, HAHAHAHA! You're the son of that guy who busted my body up!" 

"Damn right I am! And now-" 

"Shhhh," Gig interupted, "the adult is speaking. Now listen up kid, your old man broke my last body with that fake Master of Death summon of his, and it's about time I collect on that bill. So this is your eviction notice, got it kid?"

"...Yeah," Naruto answered slowly, "yeah that sounds fair. You get the body, I get the naginata." _Shame I couldn't bust up this guy's smug face beforehand, but hey, if he wants to walk into the trap that's fine._

"Eh?" Gig cocked his head, "you going into the stick? Doesn't work that way kid. You're human, your soul isn't going into a container. Hell, it's not a even up for reincarnation in this situation. Nah, here you're just going to... disappear."

Naruto shrugged as Gig landed in front of him. "Oh well, guess I'm out of luck then. Can't beat the baddest of the bad, now can I?"

"Always nice to see someone appreciate the pecking order," the smug killer replied, O"well, nice meeting ya kiddo," the demon reached out

touched Naruto's face

And screamed

\---

Naruto was jerked back to reality, finding his mother and the Hokage bent over him, alternately checking his condition and joining the rest of the room in frantically looking around for the source of a disembodied scream. 

This lasted about 10 seconds before the screaming gave way to cursing. "SHIT. Why couldn't I take his body? Why the fuck did that hurt so much? And OH IF IT ISN'T THE SHITTY GEEZER AND RED! I bet this is YOUR fault!" Naruto recognized the voice echoing around the chamber as Gig's. 

The Hokage drew himself back up, and gestured for the rest to settle down, "Hello again Gig. It's been quite some time."

"Has it? I guess for you worthless mortals maybe. Not long enough for my tastes anyway. Don't think I've forgotten about you and Red over there putting me to sleep in so short a time. More importantly: THE FUCK IS WITH THE KID?"

Kushina finished looking her son over and gave her response. "You tried to possess him, but I designed this place to prevent that. Instead, it fused you two," a friend, "having to listen to your voice is an unexpected downside, but now my son is going to use your power for good, and eventually destroy that monster you left hanging over us."

"Left hang-?" Gig sounded briefly confused, "Oh wait you mean Feinne's still HERE?! Ah, what a good girl. The greatest of my World Eaters." He sighed nostalgically, then continued, shifting into annoyance, "but to think insects like you have the balls to try and steal MY power. Mages and ninja, lords and peasants, men and women, not a one of you has a right to do anything but die for me!"

"And yet," Danzo interjected, "you are trapped, quite at are mercy."

Silence for a moment, then, "Hee... Hehehe... HaEEEHEHEHHEHAA!" Gig burst into laughter. "Oh sure old man, you've got me 'trapped.' But your meat cage is a lot less reliable than leaving me in the stick would have been, and you're trying to use my strength as your weapon." Then he addressed Naruto, "And speaking of the meat cage... well soulmate, looks like we're going to be spending some time with each other. Can't say a combo of Blondie and Red is my favorite thing, but what can you do? Tell you what, you and these busybodies want my power? You can have some, pro bono! But maybe you all get greedy and want some more." He laughed a bit more, "hehe, well, then you just come to Papa Gig's Old Timey Trading House, and I'll swap some for more control of your body.. bit by little bit. So ciao for now bastards and bitches!!!!" Gig's voice faded away and, true to his word, Naruto did feel considerably stronger as he felt a fragment of Gig's power flow into him.

The second Gig went silent, everything erupted into chaos again

"I warned all of you this would happen!" shouted Homura.

"Hmm, the boy's chakra stores just increased significantly, but it's strange looking. So this is the power of the enemy..." muttered Hiashi.

"Kushina! screamed Koharu, "that seal was supposed to suppress the creature, what have you done!"

"It did suppress him! He's too strong to control outright it seems, but if all he can do is yell he's-"

"All he can do FOR NOW is yell. Eventually he could talk full control of your son's body."

"Only if the boy gives in," the Hokage corrected, "and besides Danzo, it was you who pushed for this to happen now, I'll hear no complaints.

Arguing, backbiting, yelling, commands, all overlapping one another. All of it, plus the power he was unused to, plus the headache he'd gotten from the fusion itself did their work.

Naruto Uzumaki fainted. Properly, this time.

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been struggling to update the Geass fics, to the point where I even managed to cobble together half a Suikoden update
> 
> Instead, this popped out
> 
> Tags to come as the story moves along I guess.


End file.
